Misha Glenny

Michael V. E. “Misha” Glenny is a British journalist, specialising in southeast Europe, global organised crime, and cybersecurity.

Glenny became Central Europe correspondent for the Guardian and later the BBC. He specialised in reporting on the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. While at the BBC, Glenny won 1993’s Sony Gold Award for his “outstanding contribution to broadcasting”. He published three books about Central and Eastern Europe.

In McMafia (2008), he wrote that international organised crime could account for 15% of the world’s GDP. Glenny advised the US and some European governments on policy issues and for three years ran an NGO helping with the reconstruction of Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Glenny’s later books continue an interest in international crime. DarkMarket (2011) concerns cybercrime and the activities of hackers involved in phishing and other activities. Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio (2015) is about the leading Brazilian drug trafficker Antônio Francisco Bonfim Lopes (known as “Nem”) in Rocinha, a favela.

From January 2012, Glenny was visiting professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, teaching a course on “crime in transition”.

Glenny was an executive producer of the BBC One eight-part drama series, McMafia, inspired by his non-fiction book of the same name.